REVIEWS

To write a play that deals with a highly technical scientific topic, and to bring that play to life on the stage, are two very difficult tasks indeed.  Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT)  took on this challenge as part of their series, the History of Ideas programme. "Photograph 51" is the sixteenth play in the series. This is an award-winning play by Anna Ziegler, about the race between two leading laboratories in England, in the nineteen-fifties, to crack the nature of the DNA structure. The title of the play comes from the nickname given to an X-ray diffraction image taken by…

Feel you waste time at bus stops? Plan your trip with our app, you'll get to the stop just on time for your bus https://t.co/IgAjglMCsC pic.twitter.com/Dq1YOtA2R3 — BMTC (@BMTC_Bangalore) May 22, 2017 Thus said Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Company (BMTC), in a recent tweet. The tweet was obviously about the Intelligent Transport System BMTC has developed spending crores of rupees. But does the ITS actually work as it should? The official ITS mobile application was released in May 2016 with much fanfare. The BMTC claimed that the app would help commuters track their buses in real time. Initial reviews by the consumers…

Following a sea of controversy surrounding this season’s Bangalore Literature Festival, naturally there was much excitement in the air over the talks and discussions at the lit fest. As I entered the venue of the lit fest on Day -1, the first thing that effortlessly drew my attention in the events schedule was the list of sessions marked under the bold heading “Left Wing” and “Right Wing.” However, my efforts to decipher the code by reading the topics through a sharp eye, went in vain. The sessions on both the stages were evenly distributed, with no clue on left and…

The app released by Government of Karnataka has a lot of scope for improvement. The ambitious mobile governance project of the State government, Karnataka One, which was also touted as one of the world's largest multi-mode mobile governance platforms, has not met the expectations of the people. Even after almost two months of launching, the mobile app that intends to offer easy access to various government and private services, is yet to evolve as a comprehensive mobile governance system. During its launch on December 8, the government had boasted that the app will provide 637 government (both Central and State)…

  The BMTC bus commuters finally have something to cheer about. They can now check the buses on the routes they want, and keep the exact amount of change ready, thanks to the BMTC website that provides every possible information that's helpful for a commuter. The website, mybmtc.com, launched early this May, is user-friendly with attractive features. The information process system is at par with the needs of the urban and sub-urban areas. The website has both English and Kannada languages. All the bus stations have been listed along with the contact numbers for major stations like Kempegowda (Majestic), Shivajinagar…

The year ends with a big bang for Hindi cinema. Just about two weeks after Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son of Sardar played to 'Housefull' cinema halls, Talaash released to audiences. A week later Khiladi 787 wooed the crowds, and by December 21st it will be time for Dabangg 2. So while it has been a spectacular closing at the box office, what does it mean for Hindi cinema? Clearly, it's the first week's performance that determines the commercial success of a film. But while Talaash may finally emerge as the least successful of the year's final releases, it…

This November, it's Hindi cinema's season of film launches. So first, there was an overdose of Shahrukh Khan and Katrina Kaif in promos for "Jab Tak Hai Jaan", and now Aamir Khan takes over with the release date for "Talaash" just around the corner. While it was Aamir who first set the trend of intelligently aggressive film promotion, other Indian filmmakers have been quick to join the bandwagon. "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" promos had Shahrukh on every English language television channel, and even holding forth in a keynote address at the Hindustan Times' "Leadership Summit". The questions he fielded here…

Seeing the posters for Hugo, you’d expect something á la The Polar Express. Or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Something right out of your childhood fantasies. If you did, you’re right! Hugo is a magical 2-hour-8-minute long story of the hand-to-mouth life of a little boy, who stumbled on a life changing secret. Film-changing for cinema lovers. Nobody likes to be forgotten. Especially if their work is so tremendous that they are de facto pages in world history. Today, popular names in movie trivia include ‘Deepika Padukone’ or ‘Karan Johar’. Moving to Hollywood, it’s ‘George Clooney’ or ‘Steven Spielberg’…

Everybody has been talking about Ms. Meena. Every time the play comes to Bangalore, somebody is always telling someone else why they should not miss Ms. Meena (pun unintended). Why, even Citizen Matters has already reviewed the play! At long last, I stood in line, and a long line it was, to watch our darling Ms. Meena. A scene from the play. Pic courtesy: Perch CDs of the play were being sold, and anywhere you looked, all that you could see was a Tamil Maami straight out of a 70s edition of Ananda Vikatan (a magazine). The poster also said…

The Bengaluru Habba featured the staging of Robert Bolt's A Man for all Seasons. For those of us not familiar with Bolt's name, he was an Oscar-winning screenplay writer and playwright, who wrote the screenplays for Dr Zhivago (one of his Oscar efforts) and the legendary Lawrence of Arabia.His other Oscar came from the screenplay adaptation of this play, A Man for all Seasons. The play for the Habba was stage directed by Arjun Sajnani, who is of course known for the high quality of his productions that include Fire and Rain and Tughlaq. This play was no different in…